Colour of the Roses
by Ms. Cassandra Chant
Summary: “Curse!” He laughed. “There’s no curse! There’s only the cursed, and those who have to bear the core of their misfortunes!”
1. Black November Roses

Colour of the Roses  
  
_"You want to be part of this family so badly? You want to be close, and 'learn' about us? You'll learn more than you ever wanted to know!"  
  
A slap. A sting.  
  
"Curse!" He laughed. "There's no curse! There's only the cursed, and those who have to bear the core of their misfortunes!"  
  
A flame of candle. A red hot iron. Closer to her skin. Closer. A scream.  
  
The scent of burning flesh.  
  
"This is going to take a while. I hope you're comfortable."  
  
Flickering light as the rain slices through the night sky.  
  
"You see, I understand the curse. I understand the beginning of it and the end of it. I am the curse. I am God."  
_  
_"And I understand how the curse was made. How the curse can be undone. And then done up again. Like a ribbon, knotted and unknotted."  
  
"You want to know how to break the curse? You want to know how to save them?"  
  
A whimper. A pleading voice.  
  
"You can't. There isn't a way. You can't even break your own curse."  
  
'But Yuki-kun…Kyo-kun…'  
  
"It's simple enough. Only three things – a lock of hair, a lock of fur…a kiss."  
  
And a scream.  
_  
  
"Hatori, I need you to take care of this. For me? Just erase tonight. Nothing else. From when she arrived on the grounds."  
  
Hatori looked down at the vaguely human shape bundled into one of Akito's spare silk kimonos. One of the serving girls? Or had he hired someone? No matter. She didn't look _too_ battered…  
  
He looked up at Akito, who was staring out the window at the rain, the garden illuminated by sudden forks of lightening, the thunder to far off to hear. Dark hair twisting over his forehead. Eyes unlit, dark. Eating up the darkness outside and growing bigger.  
  
"I assume she can't walk? How can I take her to my office?" he asked. The lump on the floor didn't move. Didn't even moan in answer at the movement around her.  
  
"Carry her. She's light enough."  
  
Was Akito going crazy again? He knew Hatori couldn't carry her – unless he wanted to instantly be eight centimeters tall and wishing for seawater. Sometimes he did snap like this, too much stress from being the center of it all…From being…  
  
_"I am God."_  
  
"Don't worry. You won't recognize her. Just take her to the office, erase her memories and send her home."  
  
Hatori paused, trying not the make any sudden moves. His voice was scaring him. Smooth like honey, slippery and sweet. Poisoned honey. He drew in breath and realized Akito was not even looking at him. Still staring out the window.  
  
Hatori moved toward the shape on the floor and heaved it into his arms. He froze for a second, bracing himself for the _'poof'_ but nothing came. He was still standing. A man.  
  
"I told you."  
  
There was another pause. Thunder rumbled far the east, and Akito nodded towards the garden.  
  
"Come here, Hatori."  
  
Hatori strode toward him, his good eye navigating the dark candle-lit corners of the chamber.  
  
Wet rain lashed the window, cold grey slashes against the glass. The garden below was dark, with bare trees like skeletons, the wind stripping them of the last of their dead autumn leaves. The wind wailed through them. Hatori blinked, and for a moment his world seemed to flicker, and he wondered why he was holding a body, staring out into a cursed garden during a storm with a madman. Then it flickered again, the world righted itself, and he could hear the hushed, dry whisper of Akito's voice:  
  
"The roses. Can't you see those beautiful black roses in the courtyard?"

Those invisible roses that grew and blossomed in the long month of November…black roses.  
  
Akito had officially lost it, thought Hatori as he set the body onto the examining cot in his office. Everyone knew Akito was insane. They all were, in a way. They all had scars on their hearts that would never fade. But Akito was now…seeing things? The pressure, probably. The pressure of being…Akito.  
  
He took out his medical kit and undid the latches on the metal briefcase, revealing the simple necessities he used to clean up after Akito's playtime: gauze, bandages, bruise salve, wash clothes.  
  
He lit the stove to reheat the spare water in the kettle and turned back to his patient. Without blinking, he undid the sash on the kimono and slid it off the nude body underneath, but piling the rest of the lightweight silk over the face. He never wanted to see the face. It haunted his dreams that one day he'd recognize the face, as Kana, or Rin, or one of the others…He would never look at the face.  
  
He always did the memories first. There was nothing strange about being cared for by a doctor. But any time she might have to remember the night – he didn't want to chance it. Just this night.  
  
As he swabbed cleansing alcohol onto one of the long cuts along the girl's inner thigh, his brain had time to jog. Why could he carry her without transforming? Was she one of the zodiac? Rin, maybe, or possibly even Kagura or Kisa? The thought made his blood run cold.  
  
He wrapped the slice on her stomach in thick bandages, shaking himself into reality. Rin was staying with Kagura and Kagura's mother. Kisa was staying over at Shigure's tonight with Yuki, Kyo and Tohru. No one was out, and in danger.  
  
So how…?  
  
His fingers probed her abdomen for bruised muscles or broken ribs. Those would need salve. And the hands? Akito was known for breaking fingers if the mood suited him.  
  
He reached for the hands. The fingers were long, but the nails short; short for practical use. There were a few minor scratches, but nothing more. Except, when he turned it over and looked at the palm…  
  
A hot branded scar was burned into the flesh, the red welt raised and plump with seared cells. Running a finger down the traces of the burn, he could almost make out a sort of pattern – a weird kind of symbol. God knows what Akito got up to. His little idea of fun.  
  
He bandaged the hand with thick yellow paste, and continued examining the body. A young girl, maybe seventeen or so at the most, and if he knew Akito – freshly ravaged.  
  
He had to see her face, now. Had to make sure this wasn't one of the dreams he had late at night, when it was Kana looking back from his 'coronary' table. He reached a shaking hand for the silk…And then…  
  
There was a desperate, shuddering gasp from the table and from himself as he recognized the face.  
  
Tohru-kun.  
  
Her eyes were wide, brown and wet with unshed tears; he could see her shaking, quivering, like a mass of jelly. And then her face was shifting, her features, and then her body was shrouded in a heavy cloud of pale pink, a sparkling cloud, with a sharp _poof_ –  
  
He turned around just in time to see an brown cat race from his office.


	2. Impossible Roses

Colour of the Roses

Shigure, Yuki, Kyo and Kisa ate silently under the thingy, listening to the storm outside. Yuki felt himself shudder inwardly at the thought of Tohru being out of the house in this rainy mess. Even if she was staying with Arisa-san and Saki-san for the evening.

_"Hana-chan asked Uo-chan and me to stay at her house tonight. I've made nori-tama for supper (there's also shiokara for Kyo-kun!). I'll be home to see Kisa-san in the morning! XOXO, Tohru."_

Yuki and Kyo had come back from the drugstore with Shigure to this message and a platter of shiokara waiting on the countertop. Shigure lifted the covering on the dish and tried to sneak a little taste while Yuki and Kyo pondered – or, more accurately – argued over the note.

_"That's weird. She didn't mention she was going out."_

_"Not that you ever listen anyway, stupid cat."_

_"I do listen, you damn rat! That one time I didn't hear her, and you always turn it against me!"_

_"Well, if the shoe fits."_

_"Oh you two...stop having your little lover's quarrels, won't you? It's time to eat Tohru-kun's lovely dish of shiokara," said Shigure, setting out dishes with Kisa. "C'mon, c'mon, don't make me eat this all by myself!"_

Thunder rumbled towards the east. The wind roared like the ocean, but somehow seemed like a high-pitched sob...Rain drummed on the roof.

Suddenly, Kyo's cat ears pricked, listening and alert.

"Can you hear that?"

"It's called thunder."

"I know that! But can you hear that...other sound?"

Yuki continued eating calmly and replied, "I can hear the door's come loose, if that is the sound you mean.

He turned and saw the back door open, storm rain pouring into Tohru's oh-so-spic-and-span kitchen. Damn Yuki to always be right. But still...it wouldn't do to have Tohru come home to a mess in the kitchen. Sighing, he heaved himself to his feet and turned into the kitchen to shut the door.

Kyo stepped over the puddle of water forming on the floor and leaned over the countertop to shut the door. Reaching for a forgotten hand towel, he bent down to mop up the tiles. Lying pathetically on the floor in the water, mewing softly –

"Is there a cat in the house? I can smell cat from here," said Shigure, spooning more fish into his mouth.

"You don't have to be a dog to smell a wet cat," said Yuki, wrinkling his nose. He hated wet cats...it made him think of Kyo on a rainy day when he was at his worst. The very scent made him feel like arguing. His voice sounded coldly edgy as he spoke:

"Kyo, can't you please tell your feline friends to stay out of the house, particularly when wet?"

Kyo's voice echoed angrily from the kitchen:

"Shut up, ok! I can't help it! I don't even know how it got in here!" Kyo reached down for the bedraggled lump of brown fur, fully prepared to throw it back out into the rain. He froze stock-still as the small cat turned over in his arms and spoke, in a soft, almost silent whisper.

_"Kyo...kun? Yuki...kun?"_

Then there was a loud _poof_ of pink smoke again and Kyo nearly dropped her.

Tohru's eyes shifted back and forth behind her eyelids, and she could feel both Yuki's and Kyo's weight on either side of the bed, sitting with her. Wrapped in one of the kimonos from the linen closet, the silk to her mind felt faintly rough and the very thought of it made her shiver. But she couldn't understand why...There seemed to be a blank spot in her mind, as though looking at a place and suddenly going blind. She just wanted to go to sleep, and try and forget what she barely remembered. Something about the rain...and Hatori...and transforming?

Yuki watched Tohru's face as her worried muscles relaxed, trying to sort through his head what had happened earlier that night.

_"Tohru-kun!"_

_"What do you mean, Tohru? What, did she forget something?" asked Shigure, finally getting up to investigate._

_Kisa, at the sound of Tohru's name, padded over to investigate, with Yuki right behind._

_The three of them were floored as they came around the counter and saw Kyo laying a naked Tohru onto the floor, her hair wet from the rain._

_"What happened? I thought it was just a cat!" panicked Yuki, dodging forward to kneel beside her form on the floor. There were heavy scratch marks, and dark bruises on her abdomen and legs...He averted his eyes quickly and glared at his cousin. "You said it was just a cat!"_

_"It _**was**_ just a cat!" cried Kyo, throwing up his arms. "It was just a brown cat until it turned into Tohru-kun!" He was trying not to look down either, but he could see her face, marked with blows, a cut above her eye. He could just hear Kisa's quiet voice in the background, saying what they were all thinking:_

_"But that's...impossible..."_


	3. Cursed Roses

Colour of the Roses

"And then," concluded Shigure to Hatori as he spoke into the phone, "The cat turned into Tohru-kun! Is this a new development in the curse?"

"You hack," said Hatori brusquely as Shigure bounced through the story of the night, "The curse is several millennia old. It doesn't just 'get a new development.' You should know that, having studied it yourself."

"Well, it's not like I can bother to remember it, Ha-san," said Shigure casually. "Can you come over and look at her anyway? She's cut up pretty bad."

'Cut up pretty bad'? thought Hatori. The girl was half-butchered. It was amazing she'd somehow gotten to Shigure's at all. When she had run form his office, he'd expected to find someone in that medical condition lying on the grass outside the house, barely conscious.

"I...well, I'll explain everything of what I know that happened when I get there. I know some of it, but there are dark gaps that I don't know. This goes deeper than the usual curse, Shigure."

"Always so dramatic, Hatori!"

And then:

"How are Yuki and Kyo?"

Shigure's eyes flicked to the room down the hall where they had settled Tohru into her own bed, wrapped in spare kimono so as not to irritate the cuts. He stretched the cord, and could just make out the steadfast silhouettes of Yuki and Kyo illuminated by her bedside. Alongside Tohru was Kisa, tiger ears twitching in her sleep. But neither of the boys showed any signs of sleep. He blinked and returned to the phone conversation as Yuki reached for Tohru's hand.

"They're worried...what else? It's normal for them to transform, but they've never seen it in Tohru. And those cuts and bruises...She looks like she's been _beaten_." He stopped and waited for Hatori's reply, leaving an unspoken question in the air. White noise filled the line for an awkward moment.

"I'll be right over," said Hatori, snapping back to his usual business-like self.

Yuki watched Tohru's face intently, the warm dappled light from her bedside lamp casting a glow on her face. If he hadn't been so upset, he might have likened her to a fairytale princess...maybe Sleeping Beauty. She was sleeping soundly now, which was remarkable – she'd somehow managed to turn into a cat, run through a monsoon to the Sohma house – where Kyo had dropped her on her head.

His eyes flicked to Kyo's face for a brief second, just analyzing the eyes. They were glowing an angry orange, with slits for pupils. He had a hand clamped around Tohru's, and his knuckles were white with anger and fear.

"Don't break her hand, stupid cat," muttered Yuki beyond Kyo's hearing, as he gently reached for Tohru's other hand. "That's the last thing we need."

Hatori took his coat from the hook and collected his medical kits and the unfinished report on Tohru. That, at least, he would be able to finish and add to his catalogue. Although he wished there was no such file at all.

Somehow she had received the Sohma family curse. No one understood how, or why, or if this kind of transfer was at all possible. Due to the information on the Sohma curse, this new breed of curse seemed entirely backwards. He had only studied the curse briefly himself, when Shigure had spent his time doing so in his teen years. But he knew the information was out of date, maybe even proven wrong by new developments.

He sighed. He didn't know how he would talk her into going, but if anyone could find out the nature of Tohru's curse, it would be she. This was going to take some doing.

A/N: I know this is really confusing right now, but it will come to a rather probable plotpoint/conclusion. It does contain some spoilers according to the zodiac curse.

I read the TokyoPop manga, so my information is based on that and any stuff I discovered online. Therefore I use the Japanese suffixes (-kun, -san, -sensei, etc) but I don't use Juunishi, neko, or nezumi (mainly as I read the manga, and they are not mentioned there, and it would probably just mess with my head.)

And the disclaimer, which I forgot in first two chapters. Sorry! --U

Takaya Natsuki-sensei is amazing. I can only dream of being as good as she is :) In basics – this is not my stuffs.


	4. Magical Roses

Colour of the Roses

Hatsuharu Sohma wandered slowly through the icy shards of rain that fell in sheets, raining from hundreds of broken mirrors. The water sliced at his bare arms, but he ducked his head down against the rain, and suddenly made a break for the bright light he could see in the distance – a golden glow of a house. He paused, ears listening – and then ran from the sound of rushing land and earth barreling towards him.

---

The doorbell rang, just heard over the roar of wind and rain outside. Shigure chanced a look out the window and saw, much to his relief, the dark shape of a Western car parked outside. Charging down the stars as gleeful as a boy, he moved to the door and flung it open, with a single joyous cry of, "Ha-san!"

"Thanks for saying hello," said a dark-haired girl standing in the doorway, anger hinting in her voice. She looked at him moodily. "I suppose I'm still allowed to come in?"

Shigure blinked for a second, his amicableness cooled, but then sprung back into a smile:

"Rin! It's so nice to see you too, of course! Come in!" He paused as he ushered her inside, where she proceeded to drip large puddles of water onto the floor. He instantly felt a twinge of sorrow, thinking that if Tohru was up and well she would have hurried forward with a towel and hair dryer and warm sweater. But that was why Rin and Hatori where here – Hatori understood blood and bones and Rin understand fate and curses. Or at least better than most – Rin would aggressively tell anyone who praised her for it that she was only out to break the Sohma family curse.

"Where is Ha-san, anyway? He did drive, I presume?"

Rin stripped off her wet outer jacket, revealing clothes skimpy enough to be viewed on the XXX channel. Shigure had to keep himself in check from seeing how the black lace clung to her wet skin. There were more important things to turn his head to.

"He's coming – needed to get his medical bag," sounded a voice from the back door.

Shigure turned to see Hatsuharu standing on the back landing, dripping more puddles onto Tohru's clean kitchen floor. He could just make out a bundle of something furry clutched in his arms.

"Haru," snapped Rin coldly, watching him with dark eyes. "I told you to stay at the main house. It's going to cause suspicion if you and I both go missing."

Haru looked dazed for a moment, as though he couldn't understand what she was talking about. Then his face slid to neutrality as he dropped the wet fur onto the kitchen counter.

A rabbit.

"Damn it," hissed Rin as the rabbit wiggled its nose at her, "If you're both missing then they'll know something's up. Bad enough I left, and Kisa here tonight as well."

"I mentioned to my parents that Momiji and I were going to see a movie. Mogeta's Crusade or some or such thing if he asks." He ignored the sudden pink poof on the counter. "Is there anything we could do? Cook or something?"

Hatori finally appeared at the door, the only zodiac member who had not gotten wet in entering the house; he'd had the sense to bring an umbrella, which he carefully folded up and leaned against the doorjamb.

"You, cook, Hatsuharu? If you can manage water, good. Boil water for the bandages. I need to talk to Shigure." He motioned to the living room sofa and made to sit. Rin's eyes locked on him.

"You can examine her first. I'm sure Yuki and Kyo will tell you all they know about what's going on...magically speaking."

Rin nodded and glared at the wall as she felt Haru's eyes follow her up the stairs. Magical...what a strange word to describe the heavy, looming darkness of the curse, instead of the fairy-tale ending everyone always expected.

Magical.


End file.
